The turbo tax helpers are very unhelpful, so here's the situation. Turbo Tax does not give the correct information until you jump a few hoops. If your son's combined expenses and road expenses don't equal greater than the standard deduction, it doesn't matter. However, if all his expenses exceed the standard deduction, here's the process.
Under deductions, click on Job Related. Under occupation, put in Truck Driver, on the next page click "I wasn't in any of these professions (the last choice)". The check "I'm in the transportation industry".
You'll get to the page "TELL US ABOUT THESE EXPENSES FOR YOUR TRUCK DRIVER WORK"
Enter the amount of your meals covered by Dept. of Transportation Rules, you'll enter the total amount.
On the next page it should ask you for the total amount of meals not reimbursed and the amount that are reimbursed. The meal information added on this page will populate to the 2106 expenses, which if you are subject to USDOT hours of service regulations, are still deductible, even as a W2 employee.
You'll then get the page for other road expenses (in may case it's gloves, truck cleaning supplies, pens, cellphone expenses for work related calls). The next page will ask for reimbursements for those expenses.
My combination of meals and other deductions, added up to $9,000, which put me $500 over the standard deduction.
